The Lankan team beats the Bangladeshi side to keep their campaign breathing

Women's Cricket World Cup, Mumbai

The Lankan team 202 (48.4 overs): Hasini Perera 85 (99); Shorna 3-27

The Bangladeshi team 195-9 (50 overs): Nigar Sultana Joty 77 (98); Chamari Athapaththu 4-42

Sri Lanka win by seven runs margin

Sri Lanka claimed four wickets in the last over to complete a heart-stopping win over Bangladesh and preserve their narrow hopes of making it for the World Cup semi-finals intact.

Pursuing a attainable score of 203 on a favorable wicket in the Mumbai stadium, the Bangladeshi team required nine more runs from the final six bowls.

However, Lankan skipper Chamari Athapaththu claimed three crucial wickets in four balls and de Silva ran out Nahida to secure a exciting win for Sri Lanka.

The victory – the Lankan team's first of the World Cup after three defeats and two washed-out matches against the Australian team and the Kiwi side – pushes them tied on four match points with India and the New Zealand side, who meet each other on the coming Thursday.

Bangladesh, in contrast, endured a fifth consecutive setback since securing victory in their tournament opener against the Pakistani team and have been eliminated.

While Bangladesh got off to the ideal beginning, with Marufa striking with the first delivery of the encounter to send back Gunaratne, they were rightfully made to pay for a poor fielding effort.

They gifted lifelines to Hasini Perera, who was missed multiple times, and the Lankan captain.

Although Athapaththu was unable to capitalise, removed leg before wicket for 46 just one delivery after being missed by Rabeya, Hasini Perera forced Bangladesh regret it.

She registered a debut international half-century, accumulating 85 from 99 bowls and sharing an significant 74-run partnership fifth-wicket association with Nilakshi de Silva.

Bangladesh, led by Shorna's three wickets for 27 runs, fought themselves back into the contest, with De Silva's removal in the 34th over causing a Sri Lanka downfall from 174 for four to 202 complete.

During their chase, Sri Lanka's initial pace attack Madara and Prabodhani limited Bangladesh to 23-1 in a disappointing powerplay and they were subsequently brought down to 44 for three.

Sharmin Akter and Nigar Sultana Joty restored their batting effort, adding an 82-run partnership for the fourth wicket collaboration before the batter left the field injured for a stubborn 64 in the 36th bowling phase.

It was in favor of Bangladesh heading into the final two bowling phases, with only 12 more runs required.

However, Sugandika Dasanayaka dismissed Ritu Moni and conceded only three scoring runs before the captain's chaos, with Rabeya, Nahida, skipper Joty and Marufa all removed as the Lankan team snatched the victory at the final moment.

Ultimately, it was a match of nerve. The seasoned Athapaththu, who directed away a handful of team-mates as she set herself to deliver the decisive over, kept hers. Bangladesh could not.

There will be many inquiries about the team's batting performance. They might well have been chasing around 270-280 with the Lankan team appearing comfortable on 159-4 in the 30th over, but rather the required total was considerably smaller.

However, Bangladesh lacked intent from the start, accumulating runs at less than 2.5 runs each over during the opening overs, undergoing a initial wicket loss, and ultimately forcing themselves overwhelming to do.

But no matter what problems there are with their batting, if they had accepted their chances in the fielding department, that 203-run target goal would have been substantially smaller.

It needed them three attempts to break the 72-run second-wicket association, with wicketkeeper Joty being unable to hold a tough opportunity behind the stumps to send back Hasini Perera on 23 before the captain was spared from a return catch possibility against Rabeya.

Perera was dropped further on her score of 55 and 63 runs, the latter chance traveling straight to Rubya Haider Jhilik at cover field, before finally being given out leg before wicket by Shorna Akter as she tried to accelerate the scoring with batting partners getting out around her.

Afterwards in the innings, there was also a stumping chance missed and a run-out opportunity lost, even though the second one was a somewhat unlucky, with Rubya Haider standing in with the gloves following an physical problem to Joty.

Unfortunately for Bangladesh, such fielding problems are nowhere near a one-off. They've failed to catch 14 chances from a potential 27 chances at this World Cup and have the lowest fielding effectiveness (48.1 percent) of the participating teams.

They are a team who are typically moving in the right direction – they are playing in just their second 50-over World Cup after all – but poor fielding performance is a obvious problem which demands focus.